According to the Palm Beach Post, the South Florida city mistakenly issued a "zombie alert for residents of Lake Worth and Terminus" – likely a reference to AMC's "The Walking Dead" – that blamed "extreme zombie activity" for a power outage.

City spokesman Ben Kerr later told Facebook group Lake Worth Live that officials were "looking into reports that the system mentioned zombies," adding that the city "does not have any zombie activity currently," the Post reported.

Daytona Beach, Florida, police say they tried to pull Smith over Tuesday for trying to cut through a parking lot along West International Speedway Boulevard to avoid a traffic light. Documents say Smith took off on North Nova Road.

Detectives started their investigation when a seventh person suspected in the alleged scheme, Compton Maycock-Beckles, was arrested in 2016 on grand theft and fraud charges after he was caught living in a foreclosed home in Weston, according to the arrest report.

The original owner of the home told detectives that he did not give permission to Maycock-Beckles either to live in or sell the home.

Deputies said the six suspects operated under different company names such as Global Homebuyers, Prestige Home Buyers and Global Management Consulting Group. They used quit claim deeds and attorney authorizations to take ownership of homes, according to deputies.

Detectives said the suspects also would then sell, rent or live in the homes, or also sell the same home to more than one person and collect money from both people at the same time.

The suspects also used power of attorney to access deceased homeowners’ bank accounts and Social Security checks so it appeared as if the victims had given the six permission, according to the sheriff’s office.

Solomon and Illya, Patricia and Darren Tinker remain at the Broward County Jail on $3 million bond each. Lichtman and Murdjeff are being held at the jail on $900,000 bond each, according to jail records.

His co-workers began worrying about his behavior as early as 2009, when a school technician told police he walked into the English teacher’s classroom unannounced and spotted him with a student in his classroom, the lights dimmed and Phillips’ shoes off.

A Florida man is facing charges of premeditated attempted murder after he poured gasoline into motel rooms and onto vehicles, while yelling he was going to light them on fire to kill sex offenders, according to an Osceola County Sheriff’s Office arrest report.

The report said that Jorge Francisco Porto-Sierra, 50, was seen by a driver pouring gasoline into a room. The witness said Porto-Sierra ran at his car while holding a gas can and began pouring gasoline through the car window and onto him and his girlfriend.

The witness drove away, but Porto-Sierra got into a car and crashed into the witness’ vehicle three times, the report said. Porto-Sierra yelled at the witness, “Get out so I can end your life,” the report stated.

Porto-Sierra kept his vehicle in front of the witness’ car so the couple could not leave, deputies said.

Another witness, a motel guest, said that initially, Porto-Sierra got out of a car and yelled, “I’m going to kill all child-molesting (expletive),” just before he started banging on the motel room door, according to the report.

The guest and his friend were able to escape from a back window, the report said.

Authorities arrested Porto-Sierra, who told them he wanted to “barbecue all the child molesters” and that “they all here and deserve to die,” according to the report. Sierra also told officers that he had a cigarette in his hand to light the fire, the report said.

"I go home, and I open it up and see (the photo) and I saw the tail first on the fish and realize it was a shark tail," Jon said, according to weather.com. "And then I zoom in and I’m like, 'Holy crap, that’s a shark.' And then I see the fish in the mouth ... I just couldn’t believe I had gotten that picture."

Jon told weather.com that the osprey was flying 400 feet in the air when he took the photo, and that he was lucky to get a clear shot.

On April 25, deputies responded to a home in a suburban area of West Palm Beach after a man said his next-door neighbor, Robert Ciborek, 67, came onto his property, turned on a water spigot, and placed wooden blocks underneath the tires of his car, the Palm Beach Post reported.

The man, who said he lives in the house with his wife and two kids, gave surveillance footage to deputies that identified Ciborek trespassing.

The victim said he had called deputies at least six times since April 11 to report Ciborek trespassing onto the property “causing (his family) distress,” according to the arrest report.

In one incident on April 12, Ciborek allegedly came onto the property, while wearing a mask and costume, and was looking through his neighbors' windows and doors, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Deputies went to Ciborek’s home next door and arrested him. Ciborek admitted to deputies that he went onto the neighbor’s property “to water the lawn” and was only going to there “to make friends,” according to the report.

Ciborek remains at Palm Beach County Jail on a charges of stalking and burglary to a dwelling. He is being held on no bond, according to jail records.

In the age of social media alerts, viral Facebook posts and public shaming, something occurred in our own backyards last week that can serve as an example to everyone: What you see on social media rarely tells the entire story. Take it with a grain of salt.

I first saw this Facebook post Thursday afternoon in a group for Wellington moms.

“SAFETY ALERT!!!” it began. “Ladies, my husband just had a panicked woman with a small child walk into his RPB (Royal Palm Beach) restaurant to tell him the man who walked in behind her followed her from the Buy Buy Baby parking lot. He was watching her and didn’t order anything for a while until he noticed people watching him. He continued to order a (to-go order) and then sat one table away from the woman. The police were called and asked the man to leave. They told my husband that there have been several attempted child abductions in the area of Wellington and Lake Worth lately. They are targeting women who are by themselves with their kids and then kidnapping their children! Please, please be vigilant especially when you are by yourself! If you feel uneasy, it’s probably for a reason! Make a scene and ask for forgiveness later bc it’s better to be safe than sorry!! Stay safe everyone!!”

I’m not a mom yet but I am a mom-to-be, and this had me shaken. Not just as a woman but as a woman who has been assaulted, I felt for this mother concerned for her child in a place where we should be safe: a local restaurant.

My first instinct as a reporter was to reach out to the woman who made the post. She replied politely and said her husband would be in touch with me soon. She also confirmed the restaurant: Bolay.

Then I contacted the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to ask about the post’s claim of an increase in kidnapping attempts in our area. The response surprised me.

I paused. Should I continue pursuing the story? I decided to wait until I heard from the restaurant’s manager.

Meanwhile, the post had been shared thousands of times. Hundreds of people reacted. And in that time, Brian Pollack saw the post.

Pollack, 33, grew up in Wellington and recently moved to Loxahatchee. He has been married for 10 years and has two sons aged 8 and 6. He has coached baseball at the Willows in Royal Palm Beach for six years, and he’s a captain with Delray Beach Fire Rescue.

He also happens to be the man referred to in the post.

“When I read the post I thought, let me just head this off,” Pollack said. “I mean, what are the odds that this is the same situation?”

Pollack drove to the restaurant down State Road 7 from his unit at CubeSmart Self Storage on Belvedere Road, around the corner from the Buy Buy Baby plaza. He went to Bolay to get lunch for himself and dinner for his wife and sons. It was his first time ordering there. When he arrived, he said he sat inside for awhile before placing his to-go order because his wife had not yet replied with her order. After the food was ready, he ate his meal before leaving to pick up his sons from school.

As he left the restaurant, Pollack said he was stopped by two PBSO deputies who pulled him aside and asked him what was going on. The deputies did not ask Pollack for identification and did not take down his name, Pollack said. He explained he was picking up dinner.

“They did it properly,” he told me. “They pulled me to the side and said, ‘What happened?’ They raised no concern of me doing anything.”

The deputies did not file a report on the incident. According to dispatch logs, a woman in a gray tank top with a child told the Bolay manager that a man with a green T-shirt and black shorts was following her. When deputies arrived, they talked with the man — Pollack, whose name is not mentioned in the log. The “event comment” says the subject come to Bolay to eat and never made contact with the woman at any time.

Pollack said in writing his responses to the many Facebook posts, he thought about one thing: What would happen if someone had taken a photo of him and sent it to his chief at Delray Fire Rescue?

“I told some of my friends about it and they said, ‘That was you? Oh my God, we were talking about that for a few days,’” Pollack said.

He’s not upset with the woman who was concerned and reported him to Bolay employees. As a first responder, Pollack said he understands what she did in reaching out for help, and he’s glad she did so.

“I can’t fault the woman who feels scared,” he said. “I’m a father of two. But I can fault the person who’s spreading erroneous information.”

I once again contacted the woman who originally posted on Facebook. She and her husband declined to comment for this article. I have not been able to find the woman who thought Pollack was following her.

Pollack said he plans to reach out to Bolay to hopefully clear up any confusion. The original post since has been deleted, but copies remain on Facebook.

“This is where these groups are great, because you share this information immediately,” Pollack said. “But what are we sharing, and at what expense?”

A Florida couple is fighting their city over the painting of their house.

Nancy Nemhauser and her husband Lubomir Jastrzebski had painted a wall that rings their property. They had permission to paint it from city officials. They had the plan to paint it as a mural for their son, who has autism. They hoped that if he was lost, it would be a beacon, or at least a landmark, to help him find his way home, the “Today” show reported.

But after the mural was done, the family got a ticket from the city saying that the paint was graffiti and that it must match the house. The city then said that the paint scheme was a sign, and a code violation in a residential area, WFTV reported.

So instead of covering up the painting, they took the Van Gogh tribute a step further and painted the entire house so the wall and home would match as they were told to do, “Today” reported.

But the city didn’t agree with what they did and has fined them more than $10,000 for the paint scheme. A local magistrate ruled in February that the city could fine the couple, WFTV reported. The fines were stopped at the end of February after a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order against Mount Dora, WFTV reported.

But the family is now turning the tables on the city, suing the local government in federal court, saying their right to freedom of expression is being violated, “Today” reported.

"There's art on other homes, other buildings in the city, in the residential district as well, so why are we being chastised for ours when we did what we were told we had to do to keep the wall that our son loves," Nemhauser told WFTV.

The city did not respond to “Today’s” request for comment on the suit, but said in February that leaders are trying to “preserve the residential character of our neighborhoods.” They added that the house could be a distraction to drivers.

Both sides are trying to settle, but whether the painting will have to be covered has not been determined. But the family says they’re ready to stand up for their rights.

Police in Florida tried an unusual means recently to unlock a cellphone.

They visited a funeral home in Clearwater to use a dead man’s finger to open his phone as part of the investigation into his death, as well as another case they were working on, The Tampa Bay Times reported.

But while legal, not everyone is agreeing that they should have used Linus Phillip’s body to try to open the phone.

Lt. Randall Chaney said the detectives were trying to not only get access to the data the device held, but also preserve it, using the information in the investigation into Philip’s death last month, as well as a drug investigation, police said also involved Phillip, the Times reported.

Chaney said that detectives didn’t think they needed a warrant because of his death and no expectation of privacy when dead. Legal experts for the Times agreed with the detective’s assertion.

But his family, as well as a law professor, do not.

“While the deceased person doesn’t have a vested interest in the remains of their body, the family sure does, so it really doesn’t pass the smell test,” Charles Rose, a professor at Stetson University College of Law, told the Times. “There’s a ghoulish component to it that’s troubling to most people.”

The director of the funeral home directed questions to the company’s corporate offices.

A Largo police officer shot and killed Phillip in March after police said he tried to drive away when an officer was going to search him, the Times reported.

“We are disturbed by some of the claims made about a City employee and are reviewing the facts. We are also reviewing the current ordinances regarding flags and signs to ensure accurate information was shared.

The business was issued a warning, and was not fined. Warnings are issued to provide property owners information about a possible violation, and corrective action.

I have contacted the dealership and provided the owner with the mayor’s contact information for them to discuss directly. Mayor Curry and his administration respect and appreciate those in uniform who have served and continue to serve our community, and our country.”

FWC officials said they were informed about the warthog on March 4, and set up several food traps that were unsuccessful. Residents told TC Palm that the animal was not afraid of people, and “was friendly when offered food.”

The student blocked Martinez on the app. The next day the student received a message from Martinez posing as another person on Grindr, threatening to expose the nude pictures he received of the victim.

Witnesses told police that after the last play of the game several kids got into an argument that turned into a fight on the field. Team players with the Middleburg Broncos, near Jacksonville, ran onto the field and got involved in the fight, police said. Cruce began to hit and punch several of the kids who belonged to the Cudas football team, police said.

"There are consequences to actions and decisions that we make as adults. I definitely hope that it goes all the way. He needs some type of punishment for this, to teach him a lesson that this is not something you do,” said Meeks' mother, Charmaine Winter.

"We have to remember that people who seek out children usually do work or find places to go where they have access to children," said Detective Lori Fiorino, with the Orlando Police Department.

Nancy Wait, with the Volusia County School District, said Krupa has served as a substitute teacher and substitute cafeteria worker for the schools since 2015. He has substituted less than 60 times, and his last job was onFeb. 20, Wait said.

“As soon as we were notified of his arrest, he was permanently removed from the substitute list and disqualified for future employment,” Wait said.